Glory to God For All Things

From the Cross – To the Cross – By the Cross

The mystery of the Cross begins in eternity, “in the sanctuary of the Holy Trinity, unapproachable for creatures.” And the transcendent mystery of God’s wisdom and love is revealed and fulfilled in history. Hence Christ is spoken of as the Lamb, “who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world” (Peter 1:19), and even “that hath been slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). “The Cross of Jesus, composed of the enmity of the Jews and the violence of the Gentiles, is indeed but the earthly image and shadow of this heavenly Cross of love.”14 This “Divine necessity” of the death on the Cross passes all understanding indeed. And the Church has never attempted any rational definition of this supreme mystery.
From Fr. Georges Florovsky, The Incarnation and Redemption

St. Maximus the Confessor speaks of creation beginning with the Cross, that is, Christ is/was creating all things when He was dying on the Cross. Such a notion, of course, is inconceivable until we understand that Christ’s death on the Cross is an eternal event as well as the historical event on Golgotha. It tells us about the very nature of creation, of the story of creation, and the story of ourselves who exist in the image of God.

We were created from the Cross. Thus when God created Adam, we note that Adam slept, just as Christ slept in death on the Cross. Adam’s side was pierced as Eve is taken from him. Christ’s side is pierced and His bride, the Church, His “Eve,” was birthed from His side as blood and water flowed (Eucharist and Baptism).

The direction of our lives (and that of all creation) is towards (to) the Cross…for it is from the Cross that Christ speaks the words, “It is finished (completed, fulfilled).” Whatever form will be revealed in our final state of being, when all creation is set free from its bonds, it will be in the form of the Cross, a transfiguration in which the very heights, depths, and breadths of the love of God in His self-emptying will be seen to have been the fulfillment of all things.

Our lives, as we move towards that fulfillment, is by the Cross, for each movement towards our conformity to the image of Christ is a movement of love, of self-emptying, kenotic love, in which our lives are fulfilled in each other, even as God chose to find Himself fulfilled in us.

“Before Thy Cross,
we bow down in worship, O Master,
and Thy holy resurrection, we glorify!”

 

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.

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35 responses to “From the Cross – To the Cross – By the Cross”

  1. Stephen Mao Avatar
    Stephen Mao

    What a beautiful icon! Wow! In all my time as a Christian, that which is depicted in the icon has LITERALLY NEVER BEFORE occurred to me. Before thy cross we bow down indeed!

  2. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Dear Father,
    Thank you for these beautiful words. May we willingly take up the Cross of Christ,
    in and through His love for us all.

  3. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Fr. Stephen wrote:

    “Whatever form will be revealed in our final state of being, when all creation is set free from its bonds, it will be in the form of the Cross, a transfiguration in which the very heights, depths, and breadths of the love of God in His self-emptying will be seen to have been the fulfillment of all things.”

    I still struggle with this. I know we have discussed this before, but my focus still tends to be on Resurrection (even a resurrection with scars). It is difficult for me to have a vision of a final state which looks like the Cross – even if it is a complete transfiguration in love.

  4. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Stephen,
    The icon is a version of an icon “Lament me not,” which is a hymn sung during the Holy Week services that is sort of a dialog between Christ on the Cross (including after He has died) and His mother. It’s extremely poignant and touching:

    Do not lament Me, O Mother, Seeing Me in the tomb, The Son conceived in the womb without seed, For I shall arise And be glorified with eternal glory as God. I shall exalt all who magnify thee in faith and in love. REFRAIN: Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

  5. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Matthew,
    It is simply the display of love. It does not distract from the Resurrection, nor compete with it. But without it, the Resurrection would not have the same meaning. St. Paul says, “I have determined to know nothing among you save Christ Crucified…” It’s love that empties itself, love that is willing to suffer with us, in us, and to carry us into His resurrection.

    I would suggest just praying with it…and listen…

    For me, it has been the repetition, year after year, of the full cycle of the services of Holy Week, that have brought home the crucifixion as understood in Orthodoxy. I’m not sure that looking at it in isolation (much less in the context of years of Western Protestant preaching) can make it clear. Again, nothing in this diminishes the Resurrection. Interestingly, in Orthodoxy (and not in the West), the theme of the Resurrection is already present in the services beginning on Holy Thursday evening. It begins in a muted form that is referenced musically, as something of a teasing hint, such that, even in the grief of the arrest and torture, there is already the promise of victory – it reveals that His suffering will not be a defeat.

    But all of that grows steadily across the services until it is thundering, drowning out everything else by the time of the Paschal liturgy itself. But none of it is in isolation, or reduced to idea. The services “bathe” us in the reality and allow for a mystical participation in what is taking place. It manifests the Pascha of Christ (a term that is inclusive of the full suffering, death, burial, and resurrection). It is the “Passover” of Christ.

  6. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Fr. Stephen wrote:

    “Again, nothing in this diminishes the Resurrection. Interestingly, in Orthodoxy (and not in the West), the theme of the Resurrection is already present in the services beginning on Holy Thursday evening. It begins in a muted form that is referenced musically, as something of a teasing hint, such that, even in the grief of the arrest and torture, there is already the promise of victory – it reveals that His suffering will not be a defeat.”

    This is it really. Thanks so much for it. For years I struggled (and so did a lot of other evangelicals if they are really honest with themselves) with the Cross – Resurrection relationship. How could these two separate entities actually be understood as being intimately related? What did one mean in relation to the other? I think I used a lot of words and concepts to try and describe the relationship, but in the end nothing seems to compare to a liturgy bathing us in Paschal inclusion and completion in which the explanation of Cross – Resurrection becomes ever so clear.

    Add to this ugly equation a PSA understanding of the horrific Cross (even though we sang “Oh the Wonderful Cross”!) and a bloodied and broken Jesus Christ and you can see why thinking of our final state of being as Cross-like is so problematic for me.

  7. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Also … I fully agree with Stephen. What a beautiful icon! For me it kind of speaks “Pietà”, but in a different yet moving way.

  8. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    One last comment on the Cross – Resurrection relationship:

    Even in the movie “The Passion of the Christ” Gibson includes the Resurrection, but artistically is seems so separated from the Cross. The Cross was horror, blood, pain, etc. which took place in what seems to be a truly historical and humanistic moment in time. Then comes this very short, sort of magical/other-worldly Resurrection scene which seems so utterly disconnected from the Passion sequence itself. I´m not sure what to make of it. I´m not sure what people who don´t have a Christian worldview made of it.

  9. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    All of worldly existence, the entire universe will experience the cross and the resurrection in the eschaton. All comes to Christ through the Cross of His love.

  10. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Thank you Dee.

  11. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Matthew,
    Today is the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross (Sept. 14) – thus I wrote this short reflection last night for the occasion. But this morning in Church, we did a festal Matins with the Liturgy. I was thinking of your comment throughout the service. The Orthodox service of the Cross is so completely full of joy and victory. I don’t think that was a “sorrowful” note in any of it. It’s quite interesting.

    Also, the West does pretty little to nothing with the Harrowing of Hades. In the East, it is almost the entire focus of Paschal cycle. So, resurrection is not just a defeat of death (He was dead, now He’s alive) – it’s the defeat of Death – the Devil – and “trampling down death by death.” So that struggle, that fight, easily gathers the Cross into itself, for the Crucifixion is already the Trampling that is carried into the depths of Hades, and shown forth as victory in the resurrection. The absence of Hades and the battle changes the West’s perception of the Cross (like in the PSA).

    Indeed, the Orthodox icon of the resurrection, the one used at Pascha, is the Harrowing of Hades. It’s such a different consciousness. Wonderfully primitive in the best sense of the word.

  12. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Thanks so much Fr. Stephen.

    We celebrated the Elevation of the Cross this weekend as well. I was pleased that the first words out of our priest´s mouth regarding the celebration had to do with Jesus´victory over death, rather than PSA/sin/morality type explanations.

    It is sad that the Harrowing of Hades is not more in focus in the west – at least more than a short creedal mention. I am looking at a photograph of the Harrowing of Hades icon which I have near my desk. I love it. It is clearly a different consciousness altogether … such promise … such hope. I think that´s why I love it so much.

  13. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Oh yes, Fr. Stephen … can you explain why the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross is celebrated outside the Paschal season? Seems odd. For us in the Catholic Church right now, liturgically speaking, is Ordinary Time.

  14. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Matthew,
    It commemorates the Finding of the True Cross by the Empress St. Helena in the 4th century. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built at her direction, was consecrated on September 13, and the next day, a feast was instituted to honor the Cross which was whole and entire and kept there until it was captured and taken away by the Persians in the 7th century. It was eventually returned (after 14 years). It was divided into various pieces following that in order to keep it from being stolen and lost again. A substantial portion remains there to this day (I’ve venerated it).

  15. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Thanks so much for the explanation Fr. Stephen.

  16. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Indeed, we have a small sliver of the Cross in our Greek Orthodox parish, which we venerated.

    Father,
    I hope this reflection is helpful to your readers. The death of Christ on the Cross had and has an ontological impact on all reality. We have the story of the ripping of the veil. That veil is contiguous with the very foundation of our reality and there remains physical evidence in the universe that Christ was slain before the world as the Orthodox are taught.

  17. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    The three dimensional Cross existed well before Descartes’ ideation. It lies within all reality as a mystery we barely discern.

  18. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Dee,
    This is intriguing! Can you point us to more information?

  19. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Father,
    As far as I understand it, Descartes’ metaphysics was strongly dualistic, with a distinction between mind and matter. I assume he was strongly influenced by Protestant theology. He perceived the need to use coordinates to describe objects in space, not too different from how navigational tools were used at the time. However, he used it as a foundation for his mathematical studies.

    I don’t have a reference beyond what historians (non-Orthodox) would describe of his work or its historical precedents. But what I do have is what the Lord reveals and what our saints report, that Christ was slain before the world.

    Therefore, if there is any truth in science, we would and could see evidence of such a cataclysmic event in the history of the universe. For my part, I witnessed His Resurrection in iconic form when I studied the subatomic foundations of our current material existence. And the locus of this iconic trace can be found using “Cartesian” coordinates, which I ascribe to that of the Cross. At the Cross is the Alpha and the Omega. Please forgive me if this seems too terse. I’m not sure whether I should say more or whether our saints have said something similar. My observation is that there is no distinction between the material and spiritual world. But we are trained not to see or look for the spiritual underpinnings of our existence.

  20. Dana Ames Avatar
    Dana Ames

    Dee,
    every time you write about what you saw, you bring forward another facet – tantalizingly small in most cases – with which you build something my mind reaches to understand and at the same time becomes more “solid” and able for me to grasp, if that makes sense. If I could understand it like you do, I’m sure I’d almost faint at the beauty of it. What a gift your scientific training has been, that has allowed you to apprehend such a vision. Glory to God!

    Dana

  21. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Amen Dana!

  22. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Dee,
    Oh my!

  23. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Father, Dana and Matthew,
    I live and work in a spiritual desert. Your kindness and kind responses are a cool cup of water. Thank you so much for your listening ears, dear ones.

  24. Byron Avatar
    Byron

    Dee, I agree with everyone else. That was an amazing post! Many thanks for it!

  25. Drewster2000 Avatar
    Drewster2000

    Matthew,

    I have found, speaking in generalities, that Catholics tend to put more emphasis on the Crucifixion and Orthodox on the Resurrection. Both are needed and must be kept in balance.

    The theme of balance permeates most of life and is something that must be forever one of our main works in this broken world. To paraphrase Martin Luther, we are all drunken peasants, continually getting back onto a horse from one side only to fall off again on the other.

  26. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Drewster,
    I think I disagree. It’s not that Orthodoxy emphasizes one thing and Catholics another – it’s rather that Orthodoxy sees the crucifixion and resurrection in somewhat different terms than in the West. I would say, in my experience, that Orthodoxy probably says more about both, and with far greater depth and breadth. It’s the difference between a 30 minute Mass and a 2 and-a-half hour Divine Liturgy (not to mention the round of Vespers/Matins that are quite common. A simple difference is that Orthodoxy has resisted reductionism for the most part.

    It’s a bit like the Theotokos. Catholicism has more formal doctrines concerning Mary (as in the Immaculate Conception, etc.), but Orthodoxy actually incorporates far more veneration of the Theotokos in their services, particularly in their hymnography.

    Oftentimes, these comparisons are apples and oranges. It’s not like two different sides of something – such that – if you had both, you’d have a balance. I do not think there is any imbalance in Orthodoxy. The differences are far more organic in nature.

    For example, though there is a huge emphasis on the Cross in Orthodoxy, there’s generally not any note of guilt, of punishment, and the like. It’s a very different treatment.

  27. Petronija Avatar
    Petronija

    Dear Father Freeman,

    I have been following you on social media for almost 15 years, admiring and spiritually nourishing every word you say and write. Thank you for every word written above… it is with special joy that I decided to write a comment today, although I have wanted to do so many times before.
    ~+~
    We have the numerous testimonies of the power of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross of the Lord, starting from the Old Testament, when Moses, crossing his hands, parted the Red Sea, then, placing a cross in the water in the desert, turned the bitter water into sweet. Through the crossing of Isaac’s hands, his sons were blessed, just as through the crossing of the hands of the patriarch Jacob, all twelve tribes were blessed. And in the New Testament, through the sign of the Cross many miracles happened: the sick were healed, the blind received their sight, the dead were raised. Let us only remember the miracle of the pious Emperor Constantine, seeing a great sign in the sky in the form of a Cross, he defeated his enemy Maxentius, who was a persecutor of Christians, thanks to which Christianity gained its freedom.
    Many examples give us reason about the Cross, as a door that gives us light in hopeless life situations; as a balm, which when we accept it dilutes the cup of suffering; and as the only means given to us to become Christ-like and to deserve the blessing of being called Christians.
    The Crucifixion way of life in the Church is a culture of encounters. The Cross is, above all, the encounter of God and man. The foot of the Cross is the place where Heaven touches Earth, where Divine love embraces human weakness, in order to establish the original dignity and beauty of man. It remains for us to make our lives a continuation of this encounter. For when the Cross unites Heaven and Earth, it means that we, the worshipers of the Cross, must also learn to bridge divisions, heal schisms and be peacemakers, embodying Christ’s prayer “that all may be one”. Carrying the cross in humility is a blessing for oneself and for all those around us, because when it is carried, it, like a beacon, enlightens every fellow human being in our everyday lives, in the encounter with the other.
    In to the end: The Cross is never without Resurrection! Prayer to God is never without an answer! What else do we need?

  28. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Thanks so much Drewster and Fr. Stephen. I will write more in a week or so when I am back at my desk PC. I don’t really like typing on my phone. 😃

  29. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Matthew,
    I was reading some today in Fr. Georges Florovsky on the Cross. I’m not quoting (I’ll paraphrase in my own style) but we could say that in Orthodoxy, the Cross is what the Resurrection looks like on Holy Friday – it is victory, a trampling down. The tomb is what the Resurrection looks like on Holy Saturday, as Christ “rests” on the Cross (all the while trampling down), and the Resurrection is what finally revealed in its stone-rolled-away, “Do you have anything to eat?” fish-chewing, touch-my-hands-and-side, stepping-through-closed-doors form on Sunday. But it’s all the same thing. The Resurrection is not the “fixing” of the bad thing of Friday – it’s all one thing. And all of that can be heard in the hymns of Orthodoxy – probably the richest resource in the history of Christianity.

  30. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Petronija,
    Thank you! Such a lyrical comment!

  31. Nikolaos Avatar
    Nikolaos

    Couldn’t You save us without being crucified ?
    I could, but I would show my power.
    I want to show the love I have for you, the freedom I give you.

    Archbishop Anastasios of Albania +

  32. Jenny Avatar
    Jenny

    Father,

    What does it mean that God chose to find Himself fulfilled in us? What an extraordinary thing!

    I often feel that the most I can give Him is to return to Him everything He gave me, which is all of myself. That feels like just a simple return of what is due. I wish there were something more, or above this that I could give Him. What you are saying here sounds as though there might be.

  33. Fr. Stephen Avatar
    Fr. Stephen

    Jenny,
    It’s wrapped in the mystery of love by which and for which He created us. Only love understands anything.

  34. Jenny Avatar
    Jenny

    Father,

    When I try to intuit this by love, I keep running into a giant block and I can’t go beyond it. The block is my understanding that the Trinity is complete within Themselves, lacking nothing, but overflowing with all goodness and love. And so I think, I cannot add anything to these Persons who are fulfilled in Themselves.

    Then I thought, if God wished to be fulfilled in human persons, He would have to willingly make Himself very, very small. Then of course, I thought of Mary. Our Lord made Himself very small, small enough to be in a womb. But even so, He was fully God.

    And He needed Mary to become incarnate. He had to be incarnate so He could die on the Cross and therefore express the full nature of His self sacrificing love. So if fulfillment means to be fully expressed, I could understand it that way.

    And if our Mother Mary is the pattern, then we follow it. We are His flesh and bones, and make Him visible. We are part of making visible the mystery of the Cross that was first hidden in the sanctuary of the Trinity. In that sense, I can grasp how God would choose to be fulfilled in us.

    The other thing I keep forgetting is that we have free will. So this movement toward the Cross, this self emptying, must be chosen by us. God gives us that freedom. He gives us a space in which we can truly, freely give Him something.

    That is an extraordinary degree of humility on the part of God- that He chooses to be fulfilled in us, and gives us the choice to agree to it or not, to walk toward Him or not.

    But I am just giving my best guess, Father, trying to think of everything I have learned from your blog. I suppose I shall have to learn how to love better in order to more fully understand this mystery. I shall have to go do the next good thing. 🙂

  35. Terence Smith Avatar
    Terence Smith

    Father
    thankyou so much for these inspirational words, which I will re read many times

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